To support standards-based instruction, it is also essential to evaluate the alignment of instructional materials to state standards. Core materials such as the adopted textbook form the foundation for language arts curriculum and instruction. Supplemental materials are resources that support the core curriculum and provide enrichment or remediation. They include optional materials from the core program along with materials from other sources, including novels and anthologies.
Evaluating instructional materials
It is unlikely that any one set of instructional materials will fully integrate all of the standards within the ELAR/SLAR TEKS, ELPS, and CCRS. Therefore, it is necessary to evaluate the core instructional materials to identify the standards that you will need to support with supplemental materials. Evaluating alignment of materials will need to be a continuous cycle and include an ongoing analysis of materials before, during, and after their use in the classroom. You can use the questions below to help guide the process of evaluating materials.
Why are you evaluating materials? The purpose will guide decisions in this process. For example, your campus may evaluate materials to
- adopt new instructional materials;
- determine how well existing instructional materials address literacy standards and support students’ mastery of standards; and
- determine what supplemental materials and support are needed.
Who will be involved? It may be appropriate to include all English language arts and reading (ELAR) and Spanish language arts and reading (SLAR) teachers or specific ELAR and SLAR teacher leaders. You will also want to include an administrator and consider others such as librarians, interventionists, instructional coaches, and specialists. These staff members may have unique perspectives on the needs of specific student populations.
What is your timeline? This will depend on the purpose of the evaluation and any goals related to that purpose. For example, external deadlines for purchasing may influence the timeline. You may also consider when teachers will use new materials, when grade-level planning will occur, and when professional development will take place.
What will you evaluate? Depending on your purpose, there may be different tools or starting points for the evaluation of materials. For example, an evaluation for the purpose of adopting supplemental materials deserves an effort in which staff reviews all materials and activities for alignment. This process may require creating a detailed inventory of existing materials such as textbooks, novels, writing programs, and many other ancillary materials. You and your team can follow up this inventory with an examination of the materials’ contents and a review of how teachers use the materials in classroom instruction. This kind of comprehensive review will give you information you need to determine the degree of alignment with literacy standards.
You might also engage in the materials evaluation process to learn how well supplemental materials target gaps and address standards not explicitly or effectively taught in the core program. You may also review how materials address specific learner characteristics such as dyslexia, giftedness, or limited English proficiency. At other times, you may evaluate materials to use for intervention with students who need additional instruction and practice with certain concepts and skills.
Often the selection of materials—especially core materials—occurs at the district level. Evaluation of core materials at the campus level is still critical in this situation because it will help teachers understand the areas in which gaps may exist between mandated core materials and state standards. For these areas, supplemental materials can support instruction and ensure that students have access to the full curriculum as outlined by the state standards.
How will you evaluate instructional materials? The team conducting the evaluation should use a rubric that matches the purpose for the evaluation, such as adopting new materials, determining gaps in existing materials, selecting supplemental materials for specific skills, or supporting intervention. Whatever tool you choose to evaluate, include the following key elements as part of the criteria you examine:
- Alignment to state literacy standards
- Vertical alignment across grade levels
- Appropriateness for age
- Alignment to all students' needs
The criteria should be specific. Criteria such as “materials are vertically aligned” or “materials address the TEKS” are too broad to serve as useful measures. Instead, it might be useful to include multiple criteria in your rubric for each element. At the same time, the criteria should not be so detailed that they are cumbersome for reviewers. Stephanie Al Otaiba and colleagues (2005) recommend using questions that address specific issues in curriculum evaluation rubrics; for example: Was the order of instruction organized sequentially? Was instruction across components clearly linked? Was instruction explicit and systematic? Ratings on specific elements such as these will provide you and your team with a detailed analysis of the curriculum. You can find more information regarding evaluating instructional materials in the To Learn More section at the end of Part 2.
Evaluating the use of instructional materials
In addition to evaluating the alignment of instructional materials to literacy standards, you and your team may also want to evaluate how materials are used. During this evaluation process, it is important to distinguish between curriculum and instruction. Curriculum includes what skills and content to teach (the scope of content) and the order in which to teach them (the sequence of content). Instruction, by comparison, refers to how the content is delivered. While overlaps exist in these areas, attempting to address an instructional problem by modifying curriculum will likely yield unsatisfactory results. For example, if your data consistently show low performance in the standards related to poetry, the causes could be any of the following:
- Poetry is underrepresented in instruction. This is an issue with the scope of the content.
- Poetry is taught early in the year but not revisited in a systematic way. This could be an issue with sequencing.
- Poetry is taught briefly just before the assessment. This could be a problem with sequencing, pacing, or both.
- Poetry is taught and reinforced throughout the year, but the quality of lesson delivery varies significantly from class to class. This is an issue with instruction.
If poetry is taught too infrequently or sporadically, you should thoroughly investigate the cause before deciding on a course of action. Sending teachers to professional development aimed at improving instruction will not address the root cause if it turns out that poetry is not adequately addressed by the core materials.
Likewise, it may be tempting to seek more materials to address gaps in achievement, but you should first examine all materials available and in use because it is possible that teachers do not use some materials well or at all. Because of this, it is important during your evaluation to ask questions about how teachers are using materials and observe the use of these materials. You may determine that teachers need more support to effectively implement materials. This support might come from professional development, coaching, mentoring, or collaborative planning.
Evaluating sequencing and pacing
When evaluating the use of instructional materials, it is also important to consider how teachers sequence curriculum and pace instruction. A recent study conducted by the National Reading Technical Assistance Center found “that a pacing schedule aligned with the core reading and language arts program increases the appropriate use of instructional time and full coverage of content by year's end. [When teachers use] a grade-level pacing schedule, students are more likely to achieve at higher levels” (Furry & Domaradzki, 2010, p. 1). New teachers are especially in a position to benefit from the structure and direction provided by the sequencing and pacing of a solid curriculum (Kauffman, Johnson, Kardos, Liu, & Peske, 2002).
Research on learning indicates that students must learn simpler foundational concepts before learning complex concepts (van Merrienboer, Kirschner, & Kester, 2010). Curriculum must be sequenced to support this. While curricular materials usually sequence instruction along such a developmental progression from simple concepts to more complex ones, developmental gaps may exist, and you and your team will need to decide how to fill those gaps.
You and your team—or those you designate to examine your language arts curricula and materials—might also check the pacing. For example, it is wise to pace instruction so teachers can spend more time teaching content that is difficult for students to master.
Pacing guides may be provided to create guidance for teachers and help ensure that students master all literacy standards over the course of the year. However, the need for re-teaching and enrichment may differ from class to class. This may cause teachers to vary their pacing of instruction. As campus leaders, you and your team can discuss ways to allow variation in pacing across classrooms while ensuring broad alignment to a common pacing guide.
Think back to the example about poetry instruction. After evaluating the core materials and the use of these materials in the classroom, including the pacing of instruction, your grade-level team or department may determine that it is necessary to adjust the sequencing and pacing of poetry instruction. This adjustment could involve reordering the sequence of instruction so that students learn foundational concepts before complex concepts, spending more or less instructional time on specific poetry skills, or integrating systematic review of previously taught content throughout upcoming units.
Adjusting sequencing and pacing is an ongoing process rather than a one-time attempt to solve a problem. While adjusting sequencing and pacing, you and your team will need to conduct ongoing evaluation to assess the effectiveness of your adjustments. It may be necessary to make additional changes to address persistent gaps.
TO LEARN MORE: For more information about evaluating curriculum and instruction for alignment to literacy standards, you may want to review the following resource:
The Florida Center for Reading Research provides “Principal Reading Walk-Through Checklists” for kindergarten through grade 12. These checklists provide models for you and your team to use as you consider measuring how teachers are using existing curriculum.
